The three finalists for Chief of Police come from Reading, Pennsylvania; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Trenton and Newark, New Jersey. Beginning at 5:30 on Monday evening, residents will have the chance to ask questions of the candidates following presentations by each.

The City of Hartford has released the following information about the finalists:

Irving Bradley, Jr., former Chief of Police in Newark and Director of Police in Trenton, NJ, is Vice President for Education Safety and Security with Bowles Corporate Security, the company charged with handling security for the Trenton school district.  He also served as Director of Communications for the City of Trenton, where he directed and managed all activities of the public safety Communications Center.  He graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. with a BA in Behavioral Science and is an active member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

William Heim has been the Chief of Police in Reading, PA twice, serving from March 1997 to January 2000 and February 2006 to the present.  He has also been Chief of Police for the Lancaster Bureau of Police, Director of Public Safety in North Augusta, SC and Chief of Police for the Pennridge Regional Police Department in Sellersville, PA.  He has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Penn State University and a Bachelor’s Degree in English from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA.  He attended the 160th Session of the FBI National Academy, the Police Executive Development Institute at Penn State and the Police Executive Research Forum Senior Management Institute for Police in 2002.

Frank Straub, the Director of Public Safety for the City of Indianapolis since 2010, previously served in the same capacity for the City of White Plains from 2002-2010.  He has also worked as the Deputy Commissioner of Training and Assistant Commissioner for the Counterterrorism Division of the New York City Police Department; the Executive Deputy Inspector General for the Office of the New York State Inspector General; and as a Special Agent for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General.  He has a Ph.D. from City University of New York in Criminal Justice, an MA in Forensic Psychology from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a BA in Psychology from St. John’s University.  He has been an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Indiana University and Purdue University in the graduate program in Homeland Security.

The program is expected to end around 7pm and will take place in the Center for Contemporary Culture at the Hartford Public Library.